Adalena Green, Judy’s mom, passed away on September 4, 2014. Services were held October 4th, 2014 at 10:30 AM at the Tulare Baptist Church in Tulare, California.

Many family members made it out to the memorial.

Wigh Family

Wendy and Andres

Warren and Victoria

Wendy and a friend

Judy hugging an Uncle

Judy and Katherine

Adalena’s Service

Adalena’s Picture Slideshow

Eulogy for Adalena

Adalena was born in Traver, California to Archie and Lillie Fry in 1926. Adalena was part of a small family, as she was the 9th child of fourteen children. Needless to say, she knew what it was like to live in a big family.
She grew up and attended school in Traver while living with her large, rambunctious family. She was no stranger to hard work, and helped out daily on the dairy farm with her family near Dinuba. She never had time to take a bath after milking cows before school, so she would go to school smelling of cows. She would often say that she felt like she always smelled of cows, even in her later years in life. If you asked her how to milk a cow, you were sure to get a good answer.

Adalena grew tired of farm life and when she was in her early 20’s she moved to the big town of Tulare with her brother John and his wife, Margarite. She got a job with Montgomery Ward in their department store. For those of you who don’t know, Montgomery Ward started as a mail order company, which later branched out into retail store locations. Tulare had their own Montgomery Ward store, which was seen as a “high class store” and exclusive, especially since Visalia did not have one.

Adalena and Marvin met at Montgomery Ward in 1948. Marvin approached Adalena one day and asked her to go to coffee, and the rest was history. Three months later they were married and recently celebrated their 66th wedding anniversary this year. During their life Marvin and Adalena raised three daughters. Adalena constantly strove to teach her daughter’s important life skills, as well as impart her wisdom upon them. She would teach the girls how to cook, clean house, sew, embroider, crotchet, anything she learned growing up she imparted to her children. She even taught them how to do things she didn’t know how to do, such as swim. Adalena sent the girls to swim lessons with a local swim instructor. Adalena would send tacos with Judy as a form of payment for the lessons.

As the girls grew up, Adalena imparted her ideologies and family values upon them. She would read bible stories as everyone sat in the living room listening, and every morning the radio was set to KRDU Christian Radio. Remember radio? Times were different back then. She would always make a big deal out of birthdays too, and would always send a birthday card to family and friends. She had a very good memory for remembering birthdays, and never missed a birthday. Adalena would always make a point to give the girls a birthday cake and special dinner of their choice.

Adalena was a firm believer that everyone and everything was equal. It could be from growing up in a large family, but she always ensured each child was treated fairly and equally. This was compounded by the fact that she was raising three girls. For each age, she had a specific gift. Each girl got the same gift as their older sibling once they hit that age. She would then make them guess what the gift was before they opened it, and would exclaim in surprise when they guessed correctly? How did they know??

Since gifts were so important to Adalena, Santa always made an appearance. One year Judy asked her “How does Santa get in this house since we don’t have a fireplace?” Adalena answered, “We leave the door open on that night.” An interesting tidbit about Adalena was that she would always lock the door. If she was driving down the road, the doors were locked. If she was working in the yard, the door got locked. If she went to take out the garbage, the door was locked. She must have really loved presents in order to leave the door unlocked for Santa. This habit was imparted to Judy, to the point where her husband Stan is always locked out of the house when he works in the yard.

Adalena was a genuinely good person at heart. She regularly visited shut-in ladies and took them baked goods, she would clean houses for some of her neighbors who at one time or another were recovering from hospital stays, and she regularly volunteered at the Tulare Historical Museum.

For a while Adalena worked at a dry-cleaners in Tulare, and then at a health food store in Visalia. She had no qualms with imparting her health food store knowledge upon the girls, and regularly fed everyone healthy food and shared her tricks and tips for healthy eating and living. She did not extend that knowledge however to poor Marvin. She made sure to feed him dessert every single day for the length of their marriage. However when it came to vitamins, she was very stringent on what vitamins everyone should be taking. Everyone would take a minimum of 15 vitamins every single day!

This eulogy would not be complete without talking about Marvin and Adalena together. With one came the other. In fact, this memorial service wouldn’t be complete without Marvin. Married for 66 years, Marvin and Adalena went everywhere together. They were each other’s support structure; one held up the other. To further prove this point, we can look at how they took care of each other in their old age. Marvin and Adalena both were no strangers to doctor’s visits, hospitals, and health scares. It always seemed that once one got out of the hospital, the other one would go into it. Even so, they each had a way of taking care of each other. When Adalena wasn’t doing well, Marvin was by her side the whole way. He would take her to appointments and help her around the house. Marvin also suffered from several ailments, including cancer and heart problems. The entire time, Adalena was there. Their love for each other was unconditional, and the support they gave each other was more than anyone could have ever asked for.

Adalena’s passing is a love story in itself. The timing shows that she was ready to go home, not only to be with Jesus in heaven but also to be with Marvin, free from ailments and old age.

Adalena was blessed to have six grandchildren and two great grandchildren who have been the joy of her life. Marvin was often heard saying, “She is something special.”